USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > Great Barrington > History of Great Barrington, (Berkshire County,) Massachusetts > Part 23
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Miles Avery, Esq .- grandfather of our townsman of the same name ;- Mr. Avery was a native of Nor- wich, Conn., born September 5, 1760, enlisted in the army when a boy and served through the war. He was present at the battle of Monmouth, and witnessed the scene of the reprimand administered to General Lee by General Washington. He died June 27th, 1850, aged nearly ninety years. Dimon Bradley from North Haven, Conn., served through the whole war, was at Fort Montgomery when it was taken by the British October 6th, 1777, and narrowly escaped be- ing taken prisoner. He died here at the age of seventy-three, July 1st, 1828. - Martin Hart, from Farmington, Conn., who died here August 7th, 1842. in his eightieth year. Captain Jabez Turner, from Hampden, Conn., who removed, many years since, to Illinois, and died there at the age of ninety-one, in 1846. Fenner Arnold, who lived to the advanced age of ninety- six years, and died February 29th, 1836. Jonathan Ford, from Hampden, Conn., the ancestor of the Ford families of this town, whose powder horn inscribed
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
"Jonathan Ford his Horn, Red Hook October 1776," is still in the possession of his descendants. Some of these-as well as others not named-received pen- sions from government for their services.
We have a well authenticated tradition, that at one period of the war several gentlemen of rank, said to have been British officers, were quartered here at the Josiah Smith tavern, where they maintained a sump- tuous style of living, having their own baker and other servants. It is related that these gentlemen conceived the idea of detaching the East Rock from the moun- tain side, and rolling it into the valley, and that they labored vigorously at this project for several consecu- tive days. It is well known, and perhaps connected with the same tradition, that several persons known as "Refugees," did, for a time, reside here during the war. Amongst these were one Jacob Vanderheyden, and some members of a family of the name of Franks from Quebec, who came here in 1775. One of this family, Miss Elizabeth Franks, a young lady and a belle, made home with Colonel Elijah Dwight. She afterwards married, and resided in Vermont.
By reason of its central position on the great thor- oughfare between Boston and Albany and between Hartford and Albany, Great Barrington was at times during the war a point of some importance as a depot for military stores, provisions and supplies for the army. This was especially the case while the British occupied New York city and had possession of the lower part of the Hudson river, and the communication of Albany with the seaboard was necessarily overland to Boston or by way of Hartford. The route from Great Bar- rington to Albany was at that time through Egremont by way of Claverack and Kinderhook; and the Clav- erack and Kinderhook Landings. on the river, were places of considerable importance. From these places stores were moved either by water or overland to Albany.
Moses Hopkins, Esq .- still remembered by the old inhabitants of the town-was employed here in the commissary department from 1777 to 1780, a part of the time in connection with Thomas L. Whitbeck. Mr.
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COMMISSARY STORES.
Hopkins is supposed to have had his place of business in an old store, then belonging to the Gunn family, which stood until 1820, at the north-east corner of the garden of Ralph Taylor, in which he is known to have carried on the business of merchandising from 1782 to about 1796. The basement of the Henderson house- then occupied by Colonel Elijah Dwight-and also the basement of the house of Lieutenant Gamaliel Whit- ing-which stood upon the site of the soldiers' monu- ment-were used as depositories for commissary stores. An old lady-the late Mrs. Mary Pynchon-who wit- nessed the scene, informed the writer that on one oc- casion a hogshead of commissary rum burst, in the basement of the Whiting house; its contents running into the street attracted a swarm of village topers, who assembled with pans, pails, cups and such other ves- sels as were at hand, to collect the precious fluid, and presented an extremely ludicrous appearance.
During the campaign of 1777, previous to the sur- render of Burgoyne's army, large quantities of stores were gathered here and were forwarded by Moses Hopkins, by way of Claverack and Kinderhook Land- ings, to Albany for the use of the Northern army. These supplies consisted largely of rum, salt and flour, as well as of musket balls, cartridges and cannon shot. After the battles of Saratoga, and when the British prisoners had been marched to the eastward, flour from this place was sent by way of Springfield towards Bos- ton for their subsistence; and after the prisoners had sailed from Boston, large quantities of flour, trans- ported here from Albany, were sent to Hartford. The business of transporting military stores in 1777-78 and '79 furnished employment for many men and horses. In 1779 the cost of transporting a hogshead of rum to Claverack Landing, by wagon, was $50 Continental money. At that time salt was excessively dear ; a bill of sixty-five bushels bought by Messrs. Hopkins & Whitbeck in 1778 is preserved, amounting to £682 Lawful money or $35 per bushel.
In the later years of the war Captain Walter Pyn- chon-who in 1778 had been appointed "Assistant Deputy Quarter Master General for the town of Spring-
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
field and within thirty miles thereof" at a salary of $40 per month and three rations-having removed to this town, was here engaged in the commissary department. Both Moses Hopkins, Esq., and the widow of Captain Pynchon received a pension from the government.
By a resolve of the House of Representatives, De- cember 28th, 1776, Captain Truman Wheeler was ap- pointed Muster Master for the county. Congress had then offered a bounty of £6, and this state a bounty of £20 to each non-commissioned officer and soldier who should enlist in the Continental army for three years or for the war, and the county muster masters were charged with the duty of paying both the Conti- nental and state bounties. From Captain Wheeler's memorandums it appears that he mustered into the service, from January 20th, 1777 to August 1779,
for three years or the war, 480 men.
also in 1778, for three months, 28 men.
for six months, 26 men.
for nine months, .93 men.
in 1779, for nine months, 95 men.
in 1780, for six months,. 264 men.
In November, 1780, Captain Wheeler was re-ap- pointed muster master in connection with Mr. Ezra Hunt, for the county. He also held the office of Town Treasurer during the war.
Both before and during the war the adoption of precautionary measures against the introduction and spread of the small pox became the subject of con- sideration of the inhabitants in their town meetings. In the fall of 1771, one Doctor Latham, with whom in- oculation for this disorder appears to have been a specialty, visited this place and desired to institute a hospital for the purposes of inoculation. In his inter- course with the inhabitants he made a favorable im- pression, and fifteen of them, including Doctor Wil- liam Whiting, Elijah Dwight, David Ingersoll, Jun'r, David Sanford, Moses Hopkins and Gamaliel Whiting, united in a petition to the selectmen requesting that a town meeting might be called to ascertain the minds of the people relative to permitting the introduction of the small pox by inoculation, and the establishment of
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SMALL POX TROUBLES.
a hospital. The petition stated that Doctor Latham was "well recommended by gentlemen of character in New York," and that a number of persons in town were disposed to take the disorder. A town meeting was accordingly held on the 13th of September, at which the matter was presented, but so great was the dread of the small pox amongst the people that they refused to entertain the proposition.
Notwithstanding this prohibition, Doctor Latham „established himself at the house of John Pell, one of the petitioners -- who appears to have been a school- master, and to have resided here for a year or two- and began inoculating for the disorder on the 29th of September. This procedure aroused the indignation of the villagers; but we will quote from the weather book of Lieutenant Gamaliel Whiting-before alluded to:
-"1771. Sept. 29. Small Pox given at Pell's. Sept. 30. Clear, moderate, but a great storm about ye Pox.
Oct. 1. Clear; Uproar about Small Pox.
Oct. 3. Doct. Latham moved to Claverack.
Oct. 4. 9 patients went to Claverack."
The doctor and his patients were apparently driven from town, but found an asylum at Claverack, where they were joined by others from this place who went there to be inoculated.
In June, 1776, inoculation was permitted by a vote of the town, and the houses of Thomas Ingersoll and Benedict Dewey were designated as the places, where it might be carried on under the direction of a com- mittee appointed for the purpose. The house of Ben- edict Dewey, was the old Block House of the French war, which stood a few rods north of Frederick Abbey's residence, on the road to Van Deusenville. Here very many of the inhabitants took the disorder and were treated for it, in the summer of 1776 ; but the preju- dices of the people against inoculation were so strong that in November of that year they refused to permit it to be carried on "under any restriction whatever." Similar votes were passed the next year, and were re- peated in 1783-4-5.
With a few short notices of some of the men prom- inent in town affairs during the war, we close the his-
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
tory of the Revolutionary period. Sketches of Colonel : Mark Hopkins, and some others will appear in another place.
: Capt. Peter Ingersoll.
Peter Ingersoll, son of Moses Ingersoll, one of the first settlers of the town. was born here May 11, 1733. His education was apparently very limited, and, aside from his services in the first campaign of the war, which have been mentioned, he seems to have occupied no very conspicuous place in connection with town af- fairs. But the alacrity with which he raised a company and joined the army at the very beginning of hostili- ties, with the services which he then rendered, entitle him to our grateful remembrance and to a place in the town history. Captain Ingersoll was married in 1752 -soon after the death of his father-and succeeded to the occupancy of the family homestead. His posses- sions embraced a large farm lying on both sides of the Main street. extending, on the west, from the premises . of Edward Manville northerly to the dwelling of the late Doctor C. T. Collins, and on the east, from John Brewer's to the late Misses Kellogg place.
In 1766. he built near the site of the former dwel- ling of his father the old brick house-the Wainwright -Pope House-in the south part of the village, and there engaged in farming, merchandising and tavern keeping. having been licensed as a Retailer in 1770, . and as an Inn-holder in 1772. Here he remained to the time of his decease in 1785. His place of interment is · supposed to be in the south burial ground, where, near the centre of the old part of the yard, is a long row of graves of the Ingersoll family, of which two only are marked by inscribed monuments. But no monumental stone commemorates the virtues of the soldier. His cenotaph is "Mount Peter"-originally included in his possessions. This was. at that time, a beautifully wooded eminence, and has ever since borne his name : Peter-Mount Peter, for which modern sentimental- ism, with its customary disregard of landmarks and tra- ditions, is persistently endeavoring to substitute Petra.
Of the children of Captain Peter Ingersoll; Thomas
267
CAPTAIN SILAS GOODRICH.
removed to Western New York about 1790; Moses re- sided at Chenango, Tioga county, N. Y., in 1793; Peter is recorded as having been a resident of Chemung, Montgomery county, in 1790, and of Onondaga coun- ty in 1798. Descendants of one of these, as we are in- formed, are still living in the vicinity of Owego, N. Y.
Capt. Silas Goodrich.
We know but little of Captain Goodrich. The first mention we find of him is May 1763, when intention of marriage was published between Silas Goodrich and Lois Sheldon -- daughter of Aaron Sheldon; and in the same year he appears to have built the old Episcopal parsonage-afterwards the jail house of the county- which was taken down in 1876. In 1773 Silas Good- rich was licensed as an Inn holder, and is presumed to have occupied a house, previously owned by Doctor Samuel Lee, which stood where the dwelling of Doctor W. H. Parks-next south of the Episcopal church- now does, and which Captain Goodrich purchased in 1774. At the breaking out of the war, Captain Good- rich entered the service as Lieutenant in the company of Captain Peter Ingersoll, which marched, as has been mentioned, April 24th, 1775. In 1777 he was a mem- ber of the Committee of Safety, and jointly with Cap- tain William King represented the town at a session of the General Court at Boston in May of that year. As captain of the Great Barrington militia he appears to have been active and energetic, especially so in the campaign of 1777, when with his company, or with de- tachments from it, he was several times engaged in the service. Captain Goodrich removed from town before, or soon after, the close of the war, and appears to have resided in Manchester, Vt., about 1790. Of his family we have only the record of one child, a daughter- Sarah-baptized by Rev. Roger Viets, April 22, 1764.
Capt. Truman Wheeler.
Truman Wheeler, a native of Southbury, Conn., said to have been educated at Yale College, came here apparently in the spring of 1764, and engaged in busi- ness as a merchant. The first entry on his books is under date of June 1st, 1764. His place of business
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
was a mile south of the central part of the village, and near where his grand-son, Merritt I. Wheeler, now re- sides. In this vicinity, a few years later, he purchased land, built the present Wheeler house in 1771, and cul- tivated a large farm. Here he continued his business of merchandising for twelve or more years, until inter- rupted by the war. He held the office of Town treas- urer during the Revolution, 1776-1782, and was a mem- ber of the Committee of Safety in 1776. In the latter year he was appointed muster master for the county, for mustering soldiers into the Continental service and paying to them the state and Continental bounties to which they were entitled. The important duties of this office he performed efficiently and faithfully, and throughout the war he labored assiduously for the suc- cess of the American arms. In addition to filling va- rious town offices, he was commissioned one of the Justices of the Peace of the county, and in 1796 repre- sented the town in the General Court. Captain Wheeler was of a genial and social disposition, an intelligent and useful citizen, industrious, correct and reliable, and enjoyed to an extraordinary degree the esteem and confidence of his townsmen. The old inhabitants who knew him were accustomed to speak with great respect of his many good qualities. His death occurred April 19, 1815, in the 74th year of his age. The sons of Truman Wheeler were: Truman, Peyton R., Gideon, Obadiah, and Claudius. The last named of whom re- sided to the time of his decease-a few years since- on the homestead of his father, which is still in the possession of one of his descendants.
Major William King.
William King, born about 1730, was a son of Wil- liam King, one of the early settlers of the town, from Westfield. Of his early life but little is known. His educational advantages were only such as the common schools of that day furnished; but with an active mind and a natural habit of observation united with strong common sense, he acquired a large amount of general intelligence. He read a little law, in which he made some proficiency, and was accustomed to appear as
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MAJOR WILLIAM KING.
counsel in ordinary cases in the Justice's courts and also occasionally in the courts of the county. He is described as tall in stature-six feet four inches-with long limbs, large hands, not very symmetrical in his proportions, and strikingly awkward in manner and general appearance. His features were large; his head and face long, with small keen eyes and very promi- nent forehead. Such is the description of Major King, as communicated to the writer by an aged citizen, since deceased, who added with emphasis-"he was a pro- found man." In character, as in personal appearance, Major King was original and eccentric, exhibiting marked peculiarities which always attracted attention and often provoked a smile. He was a man of sound judgment, ready wit and sterling good sense. These qualities early obtained for him a prominent position amongst his townsmen, who came to regard him as an oracle and to look to him for counsel and direction in all matters of public welfare.
In the French war Major King had seen service in 1755-6, and previous to the Revolution had held the offices of Ensign and Lieutenant in the town militia. And in the preparations made in 1774-5, for meeting the expected emergency of a contest with Great Britain, he became the captain of a company of minute men which, as we have stated, marched to Cambridge imme- diately after the battle of Lexington. As captain of a company in the Continental army he did service about Boston during the years 1775-6. Before the incorpo. ration of the town Major King was clerk of the North Parish, and in 1770 and several succeeding years, was the clerk of the town. It was during the term of his office that the blank in the town records-which has been mentioned-occurred. Before and during the Revolution he was one of the selectmen of the town; a member of the Committee of Safety in 1777; and rep- resentative to the General Court in 1777, 1783, 1787. His name often appears on committees for transacting important town business, and in the county conven- tions, which were common in the Revolutionary period, he frequently represented his townsmen. Few of its inhabitants in the past have served the town more in-
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
telligently or more efficiently than Major King. He married in 1755. Rachel Lee-daughter of Samuel Lee of this town-and had his residence in a small plank house which stood a few rods east of the Bung Hill corner, where the brick house of the late Captain George Turner now does. He died in 1810, aged about eighty years, leaving no descendants. His place of in- terment is in the Upper cemetery-east of the bridge -where rest the remains of his father and mother, his sister Huldah, and his brothers Reuben and Asahel, and where also a stone is erected to the memory of his brother Captain George King, who died at Ticonderoga in 1777; but no monument commemorates the life or services of Major William King.
Many amusing anecdotes of Major King have been preserved, the insertion of two or three of which in this place may be pardonable. The following, illus- trative of his character, was related to the writer by the late Lonson Nash, Esq., who had it from a gentleman who was present at the occurrence: More than a cen- tury since, and while Major King was yet a young man, with the military title of Lieutenant, he was drawn to serve as a juror at a term of the court at Spring- ¿ field. A suit of great local interest came before the jury, attracting a large concourse of people. After the hearing of the evidence and the arguments of the coun- sel pro and con, the case was submitted to the jury, of which one Mr. Pynchon, a merchant of Springfield, was the foreman. The jurors having retired. the fore- man, who was a somewhat arrogant and self-important man, presented to his coadjutors his own views of the case and of the verdict which should be rendered-a proceeding not unusual at that time-and asked each in turn if he agreed with him in the opinion expressed. To this each assented until he came to Mr. King, who, as it happened, was the eleventh and last man ques- tioned. Turning to Mr. King he addressed him in a cavalier manner, "Well, Leftenant King, I suppose you agree with us?" "No, Sir, I do not," was the prompt reply. The foreman, surprised that any one should presume to differ with him and his ten associates, after a little parlying, endeavored to draw from Mr. King his
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ANECDOTES OF MAJOR KING.
reasons for dissenting. These the latter declined to give. "But," says the foreman, "when we return into court you will be obliged to state your reasons." "That is the height of my ambition," replied Mr. King, "that is the place to express my opinions, where I will have men of sense to hear them." On the return of the jurors to the court room, the foreman reported that all were agreed upon a verdict, with the exception of Lef- tenant King, who would neither agree with them or give any reasons for disagreement. The judge en- quired of Mr. King the cause of his dissent from the verdict of the remaining eleven. Mr. King then ad- dressed the court, reviewing the evidence minutely and stating his views of the case with great force and clear- ness. The jurors were again sent out, and soon re- turned with a verdict in accordance with the opinions expressed by Mr. King.
As we have intimated, Major King was the oracle to which petty as well as grave questions were fre- quently submitted for determination. It happened that on a town-meeting day in the fall of the year, a knot of farmers was gathered on the green in front of the old meeting house, discussing the merits of differ- ent cider mills and the process of cider making. In + course of the conversation, one of the number advanced the somewhat startling theory that by the addition of water to the pomace in pressing, in the proportion of two or three pailfuls to a barrel of cider, the quality . of the beverage was greatly improved. This proposi- tion induced argument; different opinions were ex- pressed, and the company were unable to determine the matter satisfactorily. As Major King was passing . on the street, he was called, the case was fully stated to him, and his decision requested. Giving the sub- ject the consideration which its importance demanded, he replied, with a peculiar and emphatic gesture of the hand, "Gentlemen, I never was led into the full belief that anything made better cider than apple juice."
It is probable that Major King and his wife did not live quite happily together, as the following well . authenticated story leads us to believe : Mrs. King went, on a time, to make a visit at her father's house
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HISTORY OF GREAT BARRINGTON.
in the south part of the town intimating to the Major -perhaps in jest-that she would not return until he should come for her. She kept her word and did not return, and the Major neither went for her nor troubled himself as to the cause of her prolonged absence. Time rolled on, weeks became months, and months years, and years increased to the number of more than twenty, still Mrs. King did not revisit her home, nor in all that long period was there any corres- pondence or communication between herself and her husband. At length, one pleasant morning, Major King, tired of living alone, and having had ample time for reflection, saddled his horse and placed thereon the long unused pillion. A short ride brought him to the residence of his wife. Dismounting he knocked for ad- mission ; his wife met him at the door, when a conver- sation somewhat as follows ensued :
" Good morning, Rachel."
" Good morning, Major King."
" Rachel, have you visited long enough ?"
" Yes."
" Are you ready to go home ?"
" Have you come after me, Major King ?"
" Yes."
"Then I will go with you."
And mounting the horse they jogged home in fine- spirits.
Deacon Daniel Nash.
Daniel Nash, born March 22d, 1741, who, as we- have elsewhere remarked, came to this place from Hadley about 1767, was a kinsman of the Daniel Nash who had settled here about thirty years earlier. He became a member of Rev. Samuel Hopkins' church August 2d, 1768, and was chosen Deacon in 1773. Deacon Nash was a shoemaker by occupation ; he pur- chased of Joseph Gilbert in 1770, the place at the point of the mountain-east of the Great Bridge-lately Mrs. Amanda Burt's, where Benjamin F. Gilmore now re- sides, and had his dwelling in an old brown house which stood up under the rocks back of Mr. Gilmore's residence. He married May 3d, 1770, Abigail Dewey,
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DEACON DANIEL NASH.
daughter of Israel Dewey-born October 23d 1747. In the spring of 1776, Deacon Nash was chosen Town Clerk, and held that office for eighteen years. The town records indicate that he was active and patriotic throughout the war, serving at times on the Committee of Safety and on the board of selectmen, and marching with the volunteer militia to Fort Edward and Saratoga in 1777. Deacon Nash was a very religious, consci- entious and exemplary man, prompt in the performance of the various duties and offices requisite to good citi- zenship, and which tend to promote the peace and welfare of a neighborhood. He was highly respected by his townsmen, and was, deservedly, the recipient of their confidence and esteem.
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